Court hearing for alleged terror ring to begin next week

AMMAN — Next week, the State Security Court (SSC) will start hearing the case of eight Jordanian suspects who were allegedly affiliated with the Daesh terror group, and were plotting subversive acts against security personnel and other vital areas in the Kingdom, a senior judicial source said.

The eight are part of 10 suspects, including one at large and a minor, who were officially charged by the SSC prosecutor for plotting subversive acts, promoting terrorist ideologies, joining terror and armed groups as well as attempting to join terror and armed groups, a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

According to the charge sheet, the defendants were friends and some of them were close relatives and they reportedly decided to join Daesh because they “believed that they could establish an caliphate”.

“The group was also promoting Daesh ideologies that are available on social media and decided to join the extremists in Syria after Daesh issued threats against the Jordanian security forces at the beginning of this year,” the charge sheet noted.

However, the charge sheet added, the suspects were unable to “join militants in Syria and instead decided to conduct terror operations inside Jordan using explosive belts based on Daesh’s threats, which they considered a fatwa [religious decree]”.

The group attempted to collect cash “to supply themselves with a computer to learn how to manufacture explosive belts”, according to the charge sheet.

However, the suspects were arrested by the General Intelligence Department agents before being able to carry out any of their alleged plots.

Lawyer Musa Abdullat told The Jordan Times that he will be representing four of the 10 of the individuals, including the main suspect.

“I have not been informed about the session but I anticipate that it will be early next week,” Abdullat said.

If convicted, some of the defendants could face the death penalty.